We cannot conclude our account this portion of the parliament of Great Britain, in more just or appropriate terms than in the language of Mr. Moore, in his vindication of the House of Commons:

"The English House of Commons is not fashioned according to any system or theory; but, in point of fact, it unites in its bosom the representatives of all the classes of men in the community; it therefore sympathizes with the feelings, and speaks the opinions, of a miscellaneous people. Is a commercial question agitated? It reckons in its numbers the most opulent and respectable merchants of the country; so the greatest landed proprietors deliberate upon every point interesting to its agriculture. In my opinion, the House of Commons of England is the fairest representative of public opinion that can be contrived. Divide the whole island into districts, you throw all the returns into mob elections; you exclude all sober, quiet men, all studious, recluse characters, all men of large property, indolent and fastidious from their property, who could not endure the vexations of a popular contest; and, if they could prevail upon themselves to enter the lists, would be constantly overcome by noisy, specious demagogues, with fluent tongues and empty heads; property would want its due weight; commerce and agriculture, in their most important branches, would not be represented; no part of the nation would be represented but by the enterprizing wits and idle talkers, the destruction of every country that is governed by their councils. I conclude; from all these observations, that the great cause of the prosperity of England is the intimate connexion that subsists between the members of the House of Commons, and the feelings and opinions of every class of the people; insomuch, that the proceedings of the one have not, for any length of time, varied from the confirmed sentiments of the other. Every order of subjects has, in the bosom of the legislature, its most considerable members who espouse its cause, sympathize in its feelings, and speak its opinions. This is what I call a true representation of the people, and not any of those

those fanciful schemes which, through the medium of a pretended popular election, would throw the whole power into the hands of one set of men; perhaps the most shining, certainly the least useful, of the various classes into which a great community is divided." *

"I cannot but remark," says Pennant, "the wondrous change in the hours of the House of Commons, since the days in which the great earl of Clarendon was a member : for he complains of the house keeping those disorderly hours, and seldom rising till after four in the afternoon.” Adjoining to Westminster Hall, on the south side, is an edifice called

THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

This is so denominated from its being the place where the peers of Great Britain assemble in parliament. It is an oblong room, somewhat less than that in which the Commons meet, and is hung with fine old tapestry, with historical figures, representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the gift of the states of Holland to queen Elizabeth.

At the upper end of the room is the throne upon which the king is seated on solemn occasions, in his robes, with the crown on his head, and adorned with all the ensigns of majesty. On the right hand of the throne is a seat for the prince of Wales, and on the left another for the next person of the royal family.

Below the throne, on the king's right hand, are the seats of the archbishops, and a little below them the bench of bishops. Before the throne, are three broad seats stuffed with wool; on the first of which, next to the throne, sits the lord chancellor or keeper of the great seal, who is speaker of the house of peers; and on the other two sit the lord chief justice, the master of the rolls, and the other judges, who attend occasionally to be consulted in points of law. The benches for the lords spiritual and temporal are covered with red cloth; and there is a bar across the house, at the end opposite to the throne. Without the bar sits the

* Observations on the Union, and other Subjects of domestic Policy.

king's first gentleman usher, called the Black Rod, from a black wand he carries in his hand. Under him is a yeoman usher, who waits at the inside of the door, a crier without, and a serjeant at mace, who always attends the lord chancellor,

When the king is present with the crown on his head, the lords sit uncovered, and the judges stand till his majesty gives them leave to sit. In the king's absence the lords, at their entrance, do reverence to the throne, as is done by all who enter the presence chamber. The judges then may sit, but must not be covered till the lord chancellor, or keeper signifies to them, that the lords permit them to be so.

The House of Lords, in conjunction with the king and Commons, have the power not only of making and repealing laws, but of constituting the supreme judicature of the kingdom; the lords here assembled take cognizance of treasons and high crimes committed by the peers and others; try all who are impeached by the Commons; and acquit or condemn without taking an oath, only laying their right hand upon their breast, and saying, Guilty, or Not guilty, upon my honour. They receive appeals from all other courts, and even sometimes reverse the decrees of Chancery; and from this highest tribunal lies no appeal.

Between the House of Lords and the House of Commons

is an apartment called the PAINTED Chamber. This is said to have been Edward the Confessor's bed-chamber, and the rooms in which the parliaments were antiently opened. Conferences are often held here between the two houses, or their committees, there being a gallery of communication for the members of the House of Commons to come up without being crowded.

The vast mass of buildings in Old and New Palace Yards, constituted THE ANTIENT PALACE OF THE MONARCHS OF ENGLAND, erected by Edward the Confessor, and consumed in a degree by a casual fire in the reign of Henry VIII. 1512; after which the court removed to Whitehall and St. James's Palace.

The

The whole of the remaining parts now described are under repair, under the care of Mr. Wyatt, who has made several additions to the House of Commons, and formed two pinnacles at the east end. The whole front next the street, has been rebuilt in a Gothic stile, and cased with stucco. The front of the building next the river has partaken of the same kind of decoration. But none of these modern antiques can compensate for the demolition of the beautiful ornaments of St. Stephen's chapel *.

The chapel, as finished by Edward III. was of such perfect beauty of the kind, that we must deeply lament its being defaced in the first instance, when the old house was formed out of it; and recently in a greater degree, when the walls were almost wholly taken down. At the time when the inner walls were unmasked, by removing the wainscoat to make the late alterations, a great part of the antient decorations remained. The interior of the walls and roof of this chapel were curiously wrought, and ornamented with a profusion of gilding and. paintings. It appears to have been divided into compartments, of Gothic shapes, but not inelegant; each having a border of small gil: roses, and the recesses being covered with paintings. At the east end, including about a third of the length of the chapel, (which part hat many tokens of being inclosed for the altar) the entire walls and roof were covered with gilding and paintings, and presented, in the mutilated state in which they were seen during the late alterations, a superb and beautiful remnant of the fine arts, as they were patronized in the magnificent reign of Edward III. The gilding was remarkably solid, and highly burnished, and the colours of the paintings vivid; both one and the other being as fresh as in the year they were executed. One of the paintings had some merit, even in the composition; the subject was, the adoration of the shepherds, and the Virgin was not devoid of beauty or dignity. A multitude of arms were blazoned on the south wall, with supporters, representing unnatural and hideous combinations of various parts of different animals, and near them were two or three painted figures, in phantastic dresses. There were, however, in the same quarter, some very graceful female forms; especially one, that seemed to be the bearer of a chalice. Two figures in armour were painted in the niches on the north wall. Below was this inscription, "Mercure." Near the lobby of the house, is a small vestibule, in the Gothic style, but extremely beautiful.

Beneath the house, in passages or apartments, appropriated to various uses, are considerable remains, in great perfection, of an under chapel of curious workmanship; and an entire side of a cloister, the roof of which is not surpassed in beauty by Henry the Seventh's chapel.

In St. MARGARET'S STREET, is a respectable building of stone for the committee rooms and offices belonging to the House of Commons *.

Proceeding through ABINGDON STREET, the furthest extent of the city of Westminster is at MILBANK, where is situated PETERBOROUGH HOUSE, probably built by the first earl of Peterborough; it continued in that family till the year 1735, when it was purchased by Sir Robert Grosvenor, from whom it descended to earl Grosvenor, the present pos. sessor. It was rebuilt in its present form, by the Grosvenor family. Milbank, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was a mere marshy tract.

The HORSE FERRY was perhaps one of the most fre quented passages over the river of Thames, since the building of London Bridge, and the disuse of the ferry at that place, From the multitude of coaches, carriages, and horses continually passing and repassing at all hours, times, and seasons, many inconveniences and accidents unavoidably happened, and many lives were lost. To prevent these dangers the archbishop of Canterbury, and others, in the year 1736, procured an act of parliament, for the con

Mr. Malton, in speaking of this part of Westminster, has the following remark: "It is greatly to be wished that the example of a sister kingdom might prevail over our prejudices in favour of antiquity, and that Westminster Hall, with its surrounding buildings, which are inconvenient and insufficient for the various purposes to which they are appropriated, might give way to the noble idea of forming the whole of this heterogeneous mass into one grand design, which would extend from Margaret's Street to the river side, and from thence return along a spacious embankment, by the present House of Commons, into Old Palace Yard. In such a magnificent plan the different departments of the legislature might be accommodated in a manner suitable to their respective dignities. Round a noble hall, adorned with columns in the Grecian stile, the different courts of justice might be distributed, and at one end the two Houses of Parliament with their numerous committee rooms, might be arranged under one roof. Nor would it be impossible in such a design, so to connect the two chambers, that by removing a screen or partition his majesty, whenever the forms of the constitution require his presence in the senate, might from the throne behold at one view, the whole of his parliament assembled. Such a project would be worthy of the dignity and opulence of the nation."

struction